The Seven Sins
by fan girl of sorts
Summary: One goddess tried to stop it, One pushed it to happen. Now heroes from all different eras, from the sky to trains, must join together to stop an ancient evil. So what does this little girl have to do with it? And why is she being punished for something so innocent?
1. Time

The Seven Sins

Hello, and thank you for choosing to read my story! This is a re-done version of my original copy and personally I think it is much better. I got permission from Queenie Z , Author of The Hyrulian Valhalla Saga story to use the nicknames for the Links and I would just like to say, Thank you!

Thanks for reading~

Throughout the years, Hyrule has been protected by a Hero. He would solely face the battles, defeat the evil and restore the peace. He would usually have a guide, people behind him to make sure he accomplished his task.

What about the people he didn't see? The one no one saw, heard or felt? The one who watched over them their whole lives, each and every hero?

Like the heroes, she didn't choose to do this. She broke the timeline, and as her punishment she had to go back in time and watch over every hero through their adventure. To make sure they didn't die.

She followed them persistently through their adventures, the guide of the guides. She was the one who recorded every movement, every slash of their sword and every step they took. All for their safety. But every single time she did this she asked herself one question.

Was it worth it?

…

Goddess Naryu cried. She cried for the sadness of the girl, for the life she won't get to live. And for the fact that they were sending her to finally start her mission.

The thousands of years of watching over every hero and protecting them was simply a training strategy. To make sure she was prepared for the task ahead, to fight the demons she woke up. This lone girl had almost destroyed the world they had so preciously created. All for one thing.

The girl should have died instantly from birth. Goddess Farore thought that was what would stop Hyrule's fate. Goddess Din thought different. She fueled the girl with power and successfully fulfilled her fate. Naryu was crying because of one more thing.

That's nothing an eight year old girl should go through.

….

The Hero of Time enjoyed his daily walks through Hyrule. He enjoyed his horse rides with Epona, Helping out Malon on Lon Lon ranch, Working with Princess Zelda on Hyrule's knight force and His weekly visits to the Temple of Time.

He went there once a week, every week, to simply sit and think. He checked on the spiritual stones and occasionally laid a hand on the door to the master sword. He often missed it since it had been sealed back up and often wondered what would happen if he could fight with it one more time.

Today something was different. From the moment he had woken up, The Hero of Time felt something was wrong. While he was training with the guards in the morning he felt unsteady. During lunch with princess Zelda, the food almost made him sick.

"Are you feeling alright?" Zelda asked him, setting down her fork.

His soup lay untouched and he was staring at it with a melancholy expression.

"Do you ever get the feeling that something is going to happen?" He asked, not looking into her eyes.

"Well, I-" Zelda started, but she was cut off.

"Never mind. I'm just not hungry." He said, pushing away from his seat and walking off, leaving the princess all by her lonesome.

He walked around aimlessly through the castle. He said hello to people and continued onwards. He took no notice of his surroundings and didn't realize it when the entire afternoon had passed and night fell. He remained sitting on the edge of the town fountain staring out towards the castle in the distance.

"Excuse me, mister hero?" A young voice piped. This startled the Hero of Time so much he almost fell backwards into the fountain. A young boy, around four or so stood there.

"Oh, Hello. Can I help you?" The Hero said smiling. The young boy smiled too.

"I just wanted to say, thank you for protecting Hyrule! I'm going to grow up and be like you one day!" The boy said, beaming. The hero chuckled and ruffled the boy's hair and then watched as he ran off. He ran and joined his parents, who the Hero recognized as the dancing couple in the square everyday when he was younger.

The mother smiled pleasantly at him and took her son's hand and led him off down an alley. The father nodded at him and followed his wife and child.

The Hero sighed and got up to walk back to the castle, but stopped in his tracks. His attention was drawn to the Temple of Time. It seemed much bigger and demanding than it usually was and he could have sworn it was glowing faintly.

He walked towards it, soon breaking out into a sprint. As he passed the gossip stones, they seemed to be whispering in indefinable voices. He stopped and tried to decipher what they were saying, but they were only wisps of words.

The shallow pool by the entrance was rippling without a breeze and the surface was a deep silver color.

When he reached the doors, they opened by themselves and the Hero walked in. The spiritual stones were turning as usual, but were brighter than normal and were almost painful to look at. A bright light behind them hurt his eyes more and he covered them with his arm.

The Triforce on the door to the master sword was glowing and a small humming sound was being emitted from it. The Hero walked towards it, shielding his eyes still. As he got only feet from it, he lowered his arm and reached out, gently laying his hand on the wall.

And it shifted.

He gasped and stumbled backwards, Falling down a few of the steps and closing his eyes. When he reopened them, he walked back up the steps to look into the dark room in front of him. The single shred of light was still there as he remembered it, highlighting the master sword. He slowly walked forward and stood so he could just barely see a figure outlined behind the sword.

The Hero walked forward into the light, only a few feet away from the sword. And the figure walked forward too. In the light he saw that it was only a young girl, no older than Eight. She had two bright orange braids landing on her chest and was wearing clothing like Saria's minus the turtleneck, the headband, and the boots.

"Are you just going to stand there? Or are you going to claim what is rightfully yours?" She said, gesturing towards the sword.

He walked forward a few steps and grabbed the hilt of the sword. He looked her directly in the eyes and she nodded in response.

And he pulled the sword out with all his strength.


	2. Trial One: Sacrifice

Please remember that all nicknames belong to Queenie Z, and refer to her FAQs page at the beginning of her story for more details. On a side note, just go read the whole story, it's pretty awesome. Sorry it took so long to update, I don't have an active internet connection, but I will get one soon.

Chapter two: Trial One: Sacrifice

"This is the trial of Sacrifice, to show how far you will go. You have fifteen minutes to complete your trial. It is fairly simple; just find a way out of the pit." She said, standing on the rim of the rectangular shaped pit.

"And if we don't get out within fifteen minutes?" Sky asked.

"If you cannot find a way out of the pit by then, you will die. If you do get out, all the others will die."

"What?" Twilight exclaimed. "You can't do that to us! This pit is made of smooth, solid rock!"

"Then you will die. You, and all your comrades, will die here and no one will know and no one will care. Then Hyrule will fall."

~An hour ago~

The Hero of Time fell on all fours, clutching his stomach and waiting for the world to stop spinning. He had pulled out the master sword from its pedestal, and it sent him flying randomly through time and space. Not backwards or forwards, but into an area void of color, definition or anything at all.

It was an empty space, with the exception of ten figures standing around him. Some of them looked worried, some frightened and one with no expression at all, who was just standing there and looking down at him.

"What the hell just happened?" He said, getting up to a kneeling position. "I think I'm going to be sick."

"Go ahead, you wouldn't be the only one." Someone chuckled, kneeling down and blocking out his vision. The person out stretched his hand to help him up. "I'm Sky, it's nice to finally meet you, Time. And don't worry, some of the others had the same experience. Just be glad you're not actually throwing up."

"Sky? What kind of name is that?" He said, grabbing Sky's hand and using it for support as he stood up shakily.

"A nickname. We all get one so we don't get confused." One of the other people said. His clothing was darker than the others and more worn. "I'm Twilight by the way. And you're Time now."

"What?" The Hero of Time said, feeling disorientated and his vision slightly blurred. "Why can't I stick with Link?"

"Because we all have nicknames!" A young boy said, jumping in front of Time and throwing his arms into the air. "All of our names are Link, so we all get special names. I'm Wind and I can't believe I'm actually meeting the elusive Hero of Time!"

"Elusive?" Time said, letting go of Sky's hand. He stood still for a moment and then put a hand to his forehead, closing his eyes. When he re-opened them everything had become crystal clear and he could see all the others standing around him. Eight boys all dressed in green and blond, two of them taller than the rest along with him, and one brunette boy dressed in green. And a few feet away from the group stood the little girl.

"You!" Time said, pointing at the girl. "How did you get into the temple of time? Where am I?" He questioned. His questions were followed by silence however, as the girl just stared at him with a blank, dead expression.

But he noticed something different about her now. Instead of the scary little girl inside of the temple, this girl looked drained, as if she had no life in her. Her clothing, the basic outside and belt of Saria's clothing, were wrinkled beyond repair and slightly frayed. Her hair was tightly braided as before, but it seemed like she had never taken care of it, for it was covered with split ends and was dirty. She was barefoot, but Time's eyes were drawn to her hands. They were bandaged in dirty cloth up to her elbows and exposed her fingers. But that didn't stop the red stains showing up on both palms and on the back of her right hand.

"She doesn't speak to any of us. She only speaks to Brown." One of the small blond ones said, twisting around to look at the girl. "We don't even know her name. I'm Mini and it's not because I'm short! I worked with the Minish people!" He said, crossing his arms.

"It's a pleasure." Time said solemnly, crossing his arms as well. He looked over at the girl and opened his mouth to say something, but stopped when she shook her head. "So which one of you is Brown?"

"I am." A small voice said from behind him. Time turned around and saw the brown haired boy waving at him. "I'll give you one guess to why that's my nickname."

"So why does she only speak to you? Do you guys know each other?" Time asked.

"I only meet her about an hour ago!" Brown said, shrugging.

"Anyways," Sky said, calling back the attention to himself. "Over here are Duo, Light, Green and Engie."

"Why those names? I mean, we are all wearing green clothing."

"I'm called Green because it's my actual nickname. I didn't use the Master sword like some of you guys, I used the four sword. I split into four counterparts, myself, Blue, Red and Vio." Green explained.

"I saved two worlds, neither of them being Hyrule, but still! That's pretty cool!" One of them said, giving a thumbs-up signal and smiling.

It took him a few moments and a few strange looks from the others before he realized that he didn't say his name. He quickly said "Duo" And then shuffled off to the side.

"I'm Light." Light said, putting his hands on his hips. "It's nice to meet the man who-" He started. He stopped mid-sentence and gasped out in pain as a large gash appeared on his upper right arm, blood soaking through the sleeve of his uniform. In a second though, it disappeared and the blood on his arm evaporated.

"How the hell," Light said, looking over at the little girl. "Did you do that?"

She said nothing at all, but just stared down at the ground in front of her.

"Hey." Twilight said gruffly. "Why did you do that?"

Her eyes slowly moved up from the ground and meet Light's. "I'm sorry." She said quickly, her eyes lingering for only a second before darting back down to the ground.

"It's alright. I'm fine now, see?" Light said, letting his arm go and smiling, stopping when he realized the girl wasn't paying him any attention.

"Sorry, Time. Nothing against you, just something on my mind." Light said, sighing and scratching the back of his head.

"It's fine. Has she done something like that before?" Time asked, looking troubled.

"I've known her the longest, and that was the most emotion she's shown." Sky said, taking a glance at the little girl.

"I'm an engineer!" The final boy, Engie, shouted excitedly, throwing his arms into the air like Wind had done.

This was meet with complete silence, with the exception of the sound Wind's hand made as he smacked his forehead.

"That's why…I'm called…Engie…" Engie said, his words getting slower and quieter and he put his arms down. "I just thought you might of wanted to know that."

No one said anything after that, and for a few moments silence reigned. Twilight coughed once and got a few strange looks from the people who thought he was trying to draw attention.

"Leaf."

Time looked up and, along with everyone else, turned and looked at the little isolated girl. She was rubbing her arm furiously, almost to the point of scratching it raw.

"Is that your name?" Sky said, walking towards her slowly, stopping when she started backing away from him. Leaf nodded and started wringing her hands together.

"It's the best I could come up with." Leaf said, looking at Time.

"That's…good! Leaf is a good name!" Time said, half-smiling. "How old are you? You seem too young to work with the goddesses."

"I'm eight years old." Leaf said.

"How long have you been eight, Leaf?" Twilight asked suspiciously , knowing they weren't getting the full truth.

She didn't reply instantly, but kept opening and closing her mouth as if she was struggling to get the words out.

"1,326 years." Leaf said. "6 months and 23 days."

"That's very specific." Duo said, astonished. "Did you-"

"You will be tested in three trials." Leaf said rapidly, cutting Duo off. Her tone had gone from shy child to angry and stern, her big blue eyes narrowing into slits.

"What?" Sky asked, walking forward towards the girl.

"Starting right now." She said, snapping her fingers.

The ground shot out from underneath them, sinking rapidly. It stopped going down after they went about twenty feet down, surrounded by tall walls all around.

All the heroes crashed into the ground, some falling on top of one another and struggling to stand up. Green got up first and started helping the others up, using the wall for support from the sudden loss of footing.

"Hey!" Green called out. "Leaf! What's going on?! What is this thing?"

"We're in a pit, Green." Time said, getting up on his elbows and helping Twilight up.

"But why?" Sky said, looking upwards.

"This is the trial of Sacrifice, to show how far you will go. You have fifteen minutes to complete your trial. It is fairly simple; just find a way out of the pit." Leaf said, standing on the rim of the rectangular shaped pit.

"And if we don't get out within fifteen minutes?" Sky asked.

"If you cannot find a way out of the pit by then, you will die. If you do get out, all the others will die."

"What?" Twilight exclaimed. "You can't do that to us! This pit is made of smooth, solid rock! There is no way out!"

"Then you will die. You, and all your comrades, will die here and no one will know and no one will care. Then Hyrule will fall."

"What?!" Was cried out by many of the Heroes, now all standing.

"You're going to destroy the land we all worked so hard to protect and save? But why?" Wind shouted at Leaf.

She didn't say anything, but sat down so that her legs hung over the edge of the pit.

"That clock is already ticking isn't it?" Twilight asked, uncertainly. Leaf nodded.

"We could try stacking up, you know." Engie suggested. "Standing on one another's shoulders and whatnot."

"But then only one of us will live and all the other will die!" Brown said, waving his arms around franticly.

"This has to be a joke!" Time said. He turned and looked up at Leaf. "This is a joke right?"

Leaf shook her head.

"I didn't waste seven years of my childhood to save a land only for it to be destroyed in an impossible task! We don't have weapons or anything to stand on!" Time exclaimed.

"Maybe this is something bigger!" Mini said. Everyone looked at him. "I mean, this is a trial of Sacrifice! Maybe one of us has to die to save the others!"

"Are you suggesting something Mini?" Light said, his voice a little strained.

"Should I be?"

"Stop this! Right now!" Wind cried out. "We are heroes for goddesses' sake! We protect people and need to work together!"

"Wind is right! We can't start fighting amongst one another; we're supposed to get along!" Duo said.

"None of us are going to die." Twilight said, slowly turning away from the ground and looking up towards Leaf. "This is a trial about Sacrifice. You're testing us to see if we are willing to give up each other to live."

"We won't do that. We're not those kind of people. We will stick together until the end, even if it means death." Time finished for Twilight, standing tall and determined.

"Yeah." Wind said, standing between Mini and Engie, a determined look on his face. Mini walked over to Light and clamped his hand on his shoulder.

"We won't give up on each other."

The ground started slowly raising up, taking the heroes along with it. Leaf started clapping slowly, but remained sitting until the pit raised all the way up.

"Three minutes." Leaf said.

"What was the point of that?" Sky asked. "Why would you put us in that kind of situation?"

"I just wanted to make sure…you wouldn't…" Leaf started, drifting off. "…I'm sorry you all have to do this."

"Do what?" Time asked, his voice rougher than usual.

"Fight my battles for me. Destroy the evil I've created." Leaf said quietly, closing her eyes. "I've made a huge mistake, and I just wanted to make sure you wouldn't give up."

"What did you do?"


	3. Failure: Replacement

Alright so, this is a chapter, but a really REALLY short one. I will have a longer one up tomorrow (Hopefully) that should explain things. But right now, it's four in the morning and I have sleeping to do.

"_I have sworn to protect these heroes to the death, to make sure they complete their missions without fail… there has only been one exception, one made on purpose that I couldn't stop."_

"Leaf? Leaf! Can you hear us?"

"_Telling them…about the one mistake I made…It couldn't harm them to know…but…it would destroy me."_

"Hello?"

"Maybe she's asleep!"

"Standing up?"

"I've done that before. My back hurt for a couple of days afterwards though."

"_My mistake…they shouldn't be here, doing this. Doing my job. They deserve peace, not more fighting."_

"Maybe if we smack her?"

"We are not going to punch a little girl!"

"I never said punch!"

"_If I wasn't so selfish…so…stupid. So…worthless of being in their presence! They're heroes and I'm just… paying for my...my…"_

"Crimes." Leaf said out loud, mistakenly. She didn't even realize she hadn't said anything at all or even moved, for the past ten minutes.

It was then that she realized that Brown, who was little more than an inch taller than her, was standing right in front of her and poking her forehead with a concerned look on his face. He kept doing it until she slapped his hand away.

"Well finally, a reaction!" Leaf heard Mini say, who was standing only a few feet behind Brown. "Brown here has been poking you in the head for about five straight minutes!"

"Oh." Leaf said quietly. "Just give me a few more minutes to think. Trial two will begin shortly."

"What did you mean by crimes?" Engie said, his voice less happy than usual. "Did you do something bad?"

Leaf simply turned away from all of them, and started walking away. She sat down after a few minutes, but could still hear the suspicious voices of the Links behind her.

"Do you think we can trust her?" She heard Green say from behind her.

"She's the only one who knows what's going on here. We're going to have to trust her whether or not we want to." Twilight replied to Green.

"So what exactly is she?"

"_Goddess Farore, I do not think I am capable of finishing the rest of the trials. I ask of you, will you please send in a replacement for the following two trials? ...Thank you, Goddess Farore."_

"What is that?" Someone yelled from behind Leaf, Wind, from the sound of it.

A heavy-looking black mass was slowly moving towards Leaf, gliding as if it struggling under an immense load. As it drew closer, Leaf could make out no distinctive features of the body of the creature, as it was wearing thick, wool robes. The only distinguishable part of the body she could see was the bottom half of the face, a sickly pale color, as if the person had never seen the sun.

"**Why do you call me young girl?" **The person said, their words drawling out and sounding strangled. **"I am not complete yet… not a person."**

"I'm sorry. But I have emotionally compromised the rest of the trials. I will not be able to complete them without interfering. You must step in for me." Leaf explained, looking up at the tall person in front of her. They were seven feet tall, at least, and gave off an uneasy feeling of regret.

"**I will be able to complete this task for you…with one exception."**

Leaf's head snapped up, her expression a mixture of shock and anger. It demanded something out of her? When she was the only reason it existed?

"**If I do this for you, I will owe you nothing."** It paused, and a smirk slowly drew across it's face. **"My existence will be free. I will have life, power and will receive a soul."**

"You already have a soul. Just do your job." Leaf said. "Your only job is to-"

"What is that thing?" Someone said from behind the pair, and Leaf turned around to see the Links, all standing there with looks of horror on their faces. Time, his arm outstretched and pointing at the figure, repeated what he had said. They looked at Leaf, expecting an answer, but Leaf just scowled up at the big figure next to her.

"Your job is to-" She started, getting interrupted half-way through her sentence again.

"**I know what my job is, you little brat. All I want in return is a fresh start, and a chance to live."**

"Your request will be granted, I assure you." Leaf said, offering out her hand to the figure. It brought out its own hand from underneath its robes, if you could call it a hand. It was rather just a deformed stub with five stubby fingers attached.

They shook hands, and not a moment afterwards, Leaf evaporated into thin air.


	4. Trial Two: Prediction

Leaf had disappeared into thin air only moments ago, which left the ten heroes and the big hulking thing alone in the white space. There was a dense silence hanging in the air, only made more uncomfortable by the way the figure just stood there and stared at them.

It was like a game of mental chess, seeing which would make the first move. To the Links, it seemed like the figure had just eliminated the little girl, while to the figure, it seemed like there were just a bunch of fools standing around and staring.

It was Twilight who cracked first.

"Can we have the little girl back?" Twilight asked nervously,

raising his hand up into the air, like a schoolchild waiting to be picked.

**"No."**

"But why-" Twilight tried to continue.

**"Because, shut up."**

"Are you sure?" Twilight continued, foolishly. "Because you don't look so sure."

**"How can you tell?" **The figure replied. This did pose a question, as none of the figure was visible except the lower half of the face.

"So Mr. Big-hulky-thingy, were did Leaf go?" Engie asked, pushing his way past Wind and Green to see the figure better.

**"Who said I was a male?" **Was the answer Engie got in reply.

There was dead silence.

"So... You're a girl?" Said Sky, pointing.

**"I never said that either. You all make too many assumptions."**

"Like what?" Mini scoffed crossing his arms and shifting his body weight to his right side.

**"That I am a man. Or that I even have a gender. Or that Leaf was completely harmless."**

"But Leaf was harmless." Said Duo, scratching the back of his head nervously. "Harmless looking! I meant harmless looking!" Was added quickly after a sharp elbow to the side as delivered by Light.

**"Harmless looking, exactly. However, I am not here to explain the dynamics of things that are not important to me, and thus I should not waste my breath telling you."**

"That sentence wasted a lot of breath. You could have just said ' I'm not going to tell you.' instead." Mini said, uncrossing his arms and placing them on his hips.

**"Are you ready to start the second trial? Or do you need more time for stalling?"**

"Fine! Let's just get this over with!" Time said impatiently, the endless bantering was getting on his nerves.

"Well, wait!" Brown said eagerly, addressing the figure. "Will we get Leaf back if we finish?"

The figure did some sort of shifting motion with it's shoulders, almost like it was trying to scratch it's back with it's own shoulder blades.

"Was that a shrug? Seriously?" Green asked, a look of disbelief on his face. "Anyways, will there be fighting?"

The figure did not reply, but stretched out it's right arm to the left, as if trying to grab something to the left. It's robes slipped down a bit however, and exposed it's hand-stub, showing that it had been formed into a fist. It then shot it's arm back to the right side of it's body.

And collided with something. It sounded like it had hit an invisible gong, shattering the silence into a thousand pieces. It's hand did not make contact with anything, but a small, black square appeared above their heads.

For a moment it just hovered there above their heads and did nothing, but then it slowly started descending. It stopped at the same height that their ankles were at when it started spinning around, spinning faster and faster until it looked like a circle from above. Then, it just disappeared along with a little poofing sound.

And there sat a little, pink bunny.

**"Defeat that, and you will have passed the second trial."**

"But... That's a bunny." Sky said, pointing at the bunny, who was now sniffing the air, it's nose twitching cutely. "We can't hurt a bunny!"

**"You must, at least to pass the trial."**

"You know, it kinda looks like-" Light started, but stopped mid way through the sentence, his mouth hanging open still. He looked at the bunny in deep consideration of what to say, and decided upon a quick 'Never mind' and a foot shuffle.

"Awww!" Duo cooed at the bunny, squatting down to pet it, scratching the bunny's floppy ears. "Who's just a cute, little, fuzzy-wuzzy-"

The bunny opened it's mouth, showing off rows and rows of razor sharp teeth along with a blood-thirsty roar, right in front of Duo's face.

The rabbit closed it's mouth and, after a moment of realization and shock, Duo scrambled away from it as fast as possible, tripping over his own feet and crawling behind Twilight for protection.

**"This is the second trial, the Trial of Prediction."**

Of course by now, every one had given themselves a good space of ten feet away from the little monster.

"And how exactly, are we supposed to fight that!" Engie yelled, pointing at the bunny in horror.

Wind however, marched right up to the rabbit. He picked it and held it at eye level, bringing it so close to his face that their noses were nearly touching.

"Wind! What are you doing? That thing almost ate Duo's face off!" Mini cried out to Wind. But Wind just ignored him.

Wind pressed his face up against the bunny's, which yielded no results, squeezed the bunny to his chest like he was hugging it, and even went so far as to put it on top of his head. The bunny just sat there, docile and cute with it's little nose twitching excitedly.

"We don't have to worry guys!" Wind said, throwing his hands into the air excitedly. "It won't hurt us!"

"Weird. It only turns mean when you pet it!" Sky said, walking over to Wind and bending over to come face to face with the rabbit. Sky reached over and gently scratched the bunny's ear, and got the same reaction Duo did.

**"Congratulations, you have passed the first half of the second trial."**

No one had noticed that the figure had moved, but Time became very aware when one of it's hands clamped down on his right shoulder. He shuddered.

"First half?" Twilight said, staring at the hand on Time's shoulder.

**"Did you honestly think that the whole trial would be a bunny rabbit?"**

"Well-" Sky started.

Time's eyelid started twitching.

**"Facing your fears can come with...unexpected...surprises." **And with that, the robe on the hand clasping Time's shoulder rolled down. Expecting to see a disgusting, scaley arm, Time closed his eyes and looked away. But when he looked back, the arm he saw was perfectly normal.

It was made of flesh and blood exactly like his, but still pale to the point of being able to say that it had probably had never seen sunlight. How it turned into the ugly, green hand was a mystery, but the complete rest of the arm was normal looking.

**"You assumed that because my hands and face are grotesque that the rest of my body must be, right? You only seem to see what you want to see, and that is why you turned away from me. You didn't want to see."**

"So if your hands are so ugly, why aren't the rest of your arms?" Time asked.

The figure didn't say anything, but just pulled the robe sleeve back over it's arm.

**"Right now is not the time for that story. Right now is time for part two."**

As soon as the sentence was completed, a sort of mist started forming in the middle of the area. It was a hazy gray color, and it seemed to be rising up higher and higher in height. It soon grew to be twice as tall as the black robed figure and started expanding width wise.

After a few minutes the haze started to disappear and become solid, forming a huge body mass with two long arms and stubby legs. When it finally finished forming, it had an uncanny resemblance to Brown's Ganon.

Brown, who was closest to the Ganon clone, started panicking. He had no weapons, was tiny in comparison to it and had no where to run to. What was he going to do?

"Brown! Run!" Someone cried out, Brown wasn't sure who, but suddenly he found himself unable to move. His horrified expression convinced someone enough to simply run up and pull him away.

It was Light who had pulled him away, but it was also Light who was grabbed by the Ganon clone in Brown's place. He was held tight in his grip as the clone took a swipe at the other heroes.

"Twilight!" Sky yelled as Twilight was snatched up in Ganon clones hand, trying to grab Twilight's hand. He did manage, but the clone just grabbed Twilight's feet and yanked him out of Sky's grip.

Twilight and Light yelled as Ganon clone flung them around while jumping in loops around the other Ganon clone almost seemed to be prancing happily while squeezing Light in his left hand and dangling Twilight by his leg in his right hand.

When he stopped jumping around, narrowly avoiding stomping the others to death, Ganon clone held Twilight and Light out at arms length.

"Twilight, you alright?" Light said, fighting the urge to hurl.

When Twilight didn't answer, Light looked down over the hand that held him. He saw Twilight hanging there from his leg in Ganon clone's grip, both his hands covering his mouth. Light realized that no matter how unfortunate it was to end up in this position of being flung around, at least he was fortunate enough to end upright.

Ganon clone then brought Light and Twilight closer to him, holding the pair so that their heads were right next to each other. The two exchanged a glance, Twilight still clutching his mouth.

"He's going to eat them!" Brown cried out as the clone clutched Twilight and Light to his chest. Then, nothing.

He didn't eat the pair of nauseous heroes, but just held them there.

"Is he...hugging them?!" Sky said, disbelieving the sight in front of his eyes.

"But...I thought..." Brown muttered from the ground, where he was on all fours, not having moved from when Light pushed him aside.

**"You have successfully passed part two of the second trial."**The figure said, walking up next to Ganon's right side.

The clone started dissolving, dropping Light and Twilight from his grip. Time rushed forward to catch Light just in time, but the black robed figure caught Twilight.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Sky screamed at the figure, who was setting Twilight down on his feet. "We thought they were going to die!"

**"Exactly. Just like the bunny."**

"How was that anything like the bunny?" Mini started yelling at the figure too.

**"It wasn't what you expected at all. This was the Trial of Prediction, and all of you predicted that Light and Twilight were going to **die."

"And they almost did! Just look at Twilight!" Time yelled, pointing at the teenage boy sitting at the figure's feet. Twilight was desperatly trying not to throw up.

**"Why do you think Leaf refused to do this trial! Do you think she would have let any of you even see the bunny, let alone Ganon?"**

"No! She wouldn't have done that!" Time retorted, going over and sitting on the ground next to Twilight.

**"Exactly! She didn't want to see her precious heroes get hurt anymore! She watched over you all your entire lives! She's seen you all die many times!"**

"What?" Sky and Time said at the same time.

**"She wants all of you to be happy! I'm not here to coddle you and make sure you're all right afterwards. I'm here for one simple reason**."

"Whats that reason?" Brown asked, standing in between Light and Duo.

**"Too make sure you don't die."**

"We're not going to die any time soon!" Mini said.

**"You will if you're not prepared for what's coming. These upcoming battles you're going to be facing will be unlike any you've faced before. They won't all be hand to hand combat. They're going to fights fought entirely inside of the mind. You won't even need to pull your sword to fight for some of them. These trials are to prepare you. Now ask your self this, do you want to let an eight year old conduct this?"**

No one said anything.

"Is she coming back?" Brown asked, walking up to the figure.

**"Yes, yes she is coming back. But you have one more trial to finish."**

"But what about the thing you said. She's watched us die over and over?" Sky asked.

**"Please forget I said that. That was a mistake."**

"We can't just forget something like that!" Time said, slightly distracted by Twilight, who was currently throwing up on his own boots.

**"You can and you will. Because if you don't, I'll bring fake Ganon back out again and train him to specifically go after Twilight."**

Twilight shook his head and grunted something unintelligible at the mention of fake Ganon. He then slumped over and just lay there, unmoving.

"Twilight?" Time asked the sick teenager. "Hello?"

**"He'll be just fine."**

"Really?" Time asked. He was leaning over Twilight's head and waving his hand in front of his face.

**"Maybe."**

"Maybe?!"

**"Probably."**

"Probably?!"

**"A good, solid probably."**

"Probably?!"

"How can a probably be solid?" Duo asked to the empty space next to him.

Twilight groaned and curled up into a small ball, hugging his knees tightly to his chest.

**"Never mind. He's back to a maybe." **_***How convenient. Maybe I should bring Ganon around more often...***_


	5. Trial Three: Part One: Fear

Alright, so this chapter is really short and only the first half (more like third). I'm sorry I haven't updated, I've been REALLY busy with school. I had to re-take the Algebra EOC...Death. So the next half will be up tomorrow!~ "Where is my soul, Leaf?"

_"I'm working on it."_

_**"I can't be human without one. This front will wear off soon."**_

_"I know, I know! Just give me more time!"_

_**"How about I just make you do this next trial, and we forget this whole deal, little brat?"**_

_"No."_

**_"The longer you wait, the less I can help..."_**

_"I'm looking as fast as possible! There are no empty, soulless bodies just lying around. If I can't find those, I can't find a soul!"_

**_"I know where one might be..."_**

_"Absolutely not."_

**_"Come on, there are plenty of souls belonging to dead bodies just lying around in your era! Just give me one of those! Maybe... Your brother's? Or perhaps your father's?"_**

_"..."_

**_"I'll keep living off Poe souls in the meantime, but act quickly...time is running out."_**

_"If you even consider going-"_

**_"Don't worry, wouldn't want a filthy soul like his anyways. But remember, murder is bad little Leaf. It's not a hobby you should get into. Besides, we both know that's not your blood on your hands, is it?"_**

_"Shut up and do your stupid job."_

**_"Such an ill-mannered eight year old. Tsk, tsk. There will be consequences that you're going to have to face after finding me my soul. .."_**

* * *

"Ha, I can do it better than you, Engie!" Wind said, standing on his head.

"No way, Wind! I'm way better then you are at this!" Engie replied, swaying around unstably on his head.

"You're both doing it wrong!" Green said, struggling to get his legs up into the air.

"Guys, I feel sick!" Duo said, flipping his legs back over his head to stand up. "Did I do well, Light?"

"You did all right, Duo. But I think Wind is doing it best." Light said, crossing his arms as he watched Mini lift Green's legs up straight in the air.

**"Are you all almost done fooling around? Or will I have to wait more for your gracious attention? We do have to start trial three soon."**

Wind, Engie and Green all fell over at the same time. Green managed to kick Mini in the face as he fell, giving him a massive nosebleed.

"Ah! Green, you kicked me!" Mini yelled as blood trickled down his face.

"Sorry Mini! I didn't mean to!" Green said, standing up and looking at Mini. "Mini?"

Blood was gushing out of Mini's nose at an alarming tried wiping it away, but that only smeared it. He tried to hold in the blood with his sleeve, but it was soaked within a matter of seconds.

"What's happening to me?!" Mini said, fear slowly working it's way onto his face." This is way too much blood for a simple nose bleed!"

**"Trial three has started."**

"Make the blood stop!" Mini said, pressing his other arm up against his nose.

**"The trial of fear and self-recognition. What is your biggest fear Mini?"**

"Nob bleebing to debth!" Mini cried, his words becoming muffled by his sleeve.

**"Or is it?"** The figure walked forward towards Mini. **"You might think it's something more on the lines of Vaati, but in reality, you're most terrified of blood."**

"No I'm not! Blood isn't scary!" Mini cried, his face becoming paler.

"Stop this! Right now! You're hurting him!" Sky said, scared at how much blood there was.

" Fine, fine! I'm terrified of blood! It makes me sick!" Mini cried, closing his eyes and holding both sleeved up to his nose. The figure smirked.

"The bleeding...it stopped!" Mini said, smiling with his face covered in blood.

**"You're deathly afraid of blood, aren't you Mini?"**

"Well it never bothered me that much but..."

**"But?"**

"When Zelda was turned to stone, I touched her arm. It was cold, and I could tell that no blood was flowing. I guess I was always scared that if blood stopped like that, could something stop it from bleeding out of your body? Entirely?" Mini said, examining his wet sleeve closely.

"Mini..." Sky started, reaching out to Mini's shoulder. Mini snapped back to reality, and saw that everyone was staring at him intently, all of them so clearly worried.

"Sorry. Guess my Zelda went a really traumatic experience." Mini said, chuckling lightly.

"It probably wasn't the worst one, I mean I locked mine in abandoned Hyrule Castle basement for her safety." Wind said, placing his hands on his hips. A moment passed before he resumed with, "That wasn't the best idea now that I think about it."

"My Zelda...tried to kill me." Twilight said, scratching the back of his head. After a moment of silence he coughed, and mumbled something else. "She also only likes to be referred to as Queen."

"I kidnapped Zelda. After breaking into the castle." Light said.

"Mine turned into a spirit, whose body was stolen and followed me around in this really big suit of armor and fought enemies with me." Engie said, ending the sentence happily.

"Zelda turned into a man." Time said.

Everything in the room stopped. The only sound was the blood slowly dripping onto the floor from Mini's sleeves.


	6. Trial Three: Part Two: Fear

Okay, so I know I've kept you all waiting such a long time. I'm so sorry! So here is the 2 part of the third trial, please don't hate me!

I also base Green's fear around the four swords manga. Now before you go all "That's not canon!" On me, I know it's not canon. But I'm going off what I know and I've never played the four swords game so...yeah. But you should check out the manga when you get a chance, It'll explain more than I can. However, It's not completely necessary to know what happens, you'll just be a little confused. ~ Izzy

**"We are going to go over all of your fears. Not the obvious ones like Ganon or Vatti, but the ones hidden so deep inside that not even you yourself know about them... We are going to nit-pick through your minds into the deepest horror that resides inside of your hearts...and pray that what we see won't kill us."**

* * *

In a hurry, Twilight could barely see what was going on around him. Over to his far left was a big black dome that he couldn't see through, a black spot of emptiness in the white land. He had a nagging suspicion that a fellow hero was inside of it, facing some traumatizing fear.

To his close left was a pool of some kind. It was deep into the ground, but not completely filled. However, running close to it's rim, Twilight saw that it was Wind inside of the shallow pool, floating on his back with his eyes closed, slowly pedaling himself around with his legs.

Of course, Twilight had bigger problems than making sure Wind was still alive and safe. His bigger problems were in the form of three shadow beasts, chasing him as he ran and stumbled over his own feet.

He kept running because he knew he had no way to fight them. He had no weapons and couldn't turn into a wolf , but he could run. So that's what he did.

* * *

Mini watched from the sidelines as his fellow heroes tried to conquer fears that they didn't even know they had. He had a blanket wrapped around him, a grey scratchy one. He had no idea where it had come from, but he had curled up inside of it, his head resting on top of his knees.

"Why are you doing this to us?" He asked, craning his neck to look up at the figure.

**"It's not like I want to,"** The figure said in its raspy, choked voice. **"But it's required."**

"By who?"

**"Goddess Farore."**

"Oh."

That answer seemed to perfectly satisfy Mini and he looked away from the towering figure. He would rather focus his attention on Green, anyways. He winced as he watched Green's fight.

* * *

Green dodged another blow from the hulking knight in front of him, rolling away skillfully as if he had done this hundreds of times.

"You killed him!" The knight roared, swinging his sword at Green once again. "Die, demon scum!"

Green shrieked in fear as the sword narrowly missed his face. The knight's sword, instead of spearing Green, was embedded into the ground with a sharp piercing sound. The knight stood there and tried to pull out the sword, and Green saw his opening to attack.

Green rushed to his feet, readjusting his hat so it stayed on tightly. He then proceeded to jump up onto the top of the vertical sword, stomping on the knight's hands to get him to loosen his grip on the sword.

The knight let go in surprise and stumbled backwards, balling his hands into fists and catching himself. But Green was ready for him.

If he had time to think it out, he would've jumped backwards off the sword and then pulled it out of the ground. If he had time to think it out, he would have determined the knight's weakness and worked off of it. But, no.

No, this was pure instincts, backed by fear.

Green propelled himself forward towards the knight, causing both of them to fall backwards. Green grabbed hold of the the knight's helmet and slammed all force into it as they hit the ground. And as the Knight lifted up his hands to grab Green with, Green ripped off the knight's helmet, throwing it to the side in a clatter of noise.

And the knight made eye contact with him. The eyes had changed to all black, but Green still recognized him. That's all he needed to know, just who was behind that helmet.

And with one last burst of energy against the Knight, Green leaned forward.

And kissed the knight on his forehead.

"C'mon, I know you're in there." Green said, closing his eyes as he sat back up. He reopened them just in time to feel the knight let go of him.

"C'mon father. You know me."

The knight's eyes started to rapidly change color from black to dark blue and the expression on his face quickly softened.

"Link?" He asked, cocking his head to one side, his confused expression changing to realization.

"Dad!" Green cried, hugging us dad tightly around the neck. His dad returned the hug.

"Oh son, I'm so sorry."

* * *

If Mini had been holding something, it would have fallen and shattered into a billion pieces.

"Green's father? Green has a father? Green's father tried to kill him?" Mini was asking questions too fast to answer.

**"Yes. Tragic, it was."**

"Does anyone else besides me and him have family?"

**"Light has an uncle and Wind has a Sister and a grandmother. Besides that...I don't think so."**

"But we all at least have someone in our lives, right? Like Zelda?"

**"Almost all of you.**"

"Who doesn't?" Mini asked quietly, observing all of the heroes fighting.

**"I will not say."** The figure shot a quick glance at the black dome.

* * *

Brown just sat there, curled up into a ball with his head between his knees. He stared out into the never ending darkness, nothing was visible. He shut his eyes tightly after a moment and buried his face into his elbow.

"If I just keep my eyes closed, the darkness can't get me!" He told himself over and over underneath his breath.

* * *

Twilight finally ran out of energy. His legs screamed in protest as he pushed them farther, but his knees gave out and he collapsed, nearly face-planting. He managed to hold himself up for a few seconds, only to be lifted up into the air a moment later.

One of the Twili beasts had grabbed him and they surrounded him. The beast squeezed him as he was lifted up and brought him very close to it's head.

It was an identical experience to the first time he meet a twili beast. The thing picked him up and brought him very close, holding him and flipping him over and over to observe him better. But then, it dropped him, Twilight crashing into the ground with a painful thump.

And then he felt it. The same, awful, blood-boiling feeling he had the first time he turned into a wolf. The same compulsive shaking and stabbing feeling. Twilight screamed and arched his back as he changed, and after a few moments he was a wolf again.

Back in complete control of his wolf body, Twilight rolled over and jumped up. He growled and flattened his ears, slowly backing away from the beasts. They circled around him; swiping at him.

Twilight focused on the one to his left, jumping at it and latching on with his claws. He then bit at it's throat repeatedly until the beast fell, unmoving on the ground in a limp pile. Twilight knew the deal with these guys, kill two and the other brings them back to life. But how was he supposed to deal with them? He just kept backing away from the other two until he could think of a plan.

* * *

Time stood completely still, watching the dark copy of himself do the exact same.

"Must have been boring." Time said, breaking the silence between the two figures." Waiting that entire time for me to just show up."

"It wasn't exactly fun, but its to be expected of such a lazy hero like yourself." Dark Link said, shifting the same way Time had.


	7. Trial Three: Part Three: Fear

_16 years after defeat of Ganondorf during Time's era~_

She stood there on top of a building in the village, watching people below scream and run. She saw as one man tripped on the stairs, his belongings falling to the ground and shattering. A woman comforting and running out of the town with a child whose parents were missing.

Most likely dead.

A house next to the one she was standing on collapsed, flames licking the air around it. A man yelled, a woman screamed and the flames spread to cover the pathway. A boy, older than her, panicked and jumped off another flight of stairs. When he landed, he crawled away from fire towards the town exit, limping.

People were screaming and running desperately for the way out of the village, fire chasing them and buildings crumbling all around.

Leaf just sighed.

She sighed and stood there, watching the destruction on kakariko village.

She couldn't take one of these poor, helpless souls.

* * *

_Present time~_

Time circled back around the shadow; carefully studying it's every move as the shadow did the same to him.

"You're afraid. It's that simple." The shadow said, stopping back-to-back to Time.

"What do you mean?"

"You won't be able to defeat me this time." He spun around sharply, facing Time's back. "You barely won last time, Time. In fact, I was near killing you."

"Yeah, point out my flaws why don't you. After all, they're yours too. "Time said, slowly turning around to be face-to-face with the shadow.

"Let's not forget who has a weapon here. I'm the one with a sharp blade." Shadow said, smirking.

"You sure 'bout that?" Time said, looking the shadow up and down.

For a second, they stood there, looking at each other. The shadow stared directly at Time's face, but Time's eyes darted around the shadows shoulders.

There was a rasping cough behind them.

Quickly grasping for the sword's handle, Shadow's hand flew up to his shoulder. He found his sword there and pulled it out, relishing the sound of scraping.

"Pretty damn sure, Time. Here, let me test it for you!" The shadow said, drawing the sword out behind him. Time didn't flinch and the shadow only smirked more.

He thrust the sword forward, right into Time's gut, only to have the sword split in two down the middle. While the shadow's smirk disappeared, Time smiled.

"You're lucky, shadow me. I didn't know if that would work or not. You were watching me in that shadow temple, I know. So you should know by now, that I like to think things through." Time stepped back, chuckling at the shadow. It was still holding the split sword, disbelief etched into it's face.

"But-How did-" The shadow stuttered.

"While we were talking, I wondered why you hadn't pulled out that sword yet. In fact, until you mentioned that you were the one with a weapon, you didn't have one. _The sword appeared only after you reached for it._" Time took this opportunity to glance over at the tall black figure and Mini. Mini was completely oblivious to them, but the cloaked figure had a smirk clearly visible under its hood, rotten teeth and all.

"When I was turned away from you, I saw that thing looking over here. It made me realize that IT has control of everything going on in this room right now. Which means, it has control of _you_. I know that that thing is real, because it touched me. And these are trials, right? To make sure we are prepared? So I'm going to take a wild guess and say, it doesn't want us to get seriously hurt. Which means…"

Time knocked the sword out of the shadow's hand and grabbed it by the throat in a matter of seconds.

"That you can disappear if I try." Time finished. The shadow struggled and started fading right underneath Time's fingertips.

"Before I go, just got one thing to say." The shadow mumbled. "That kid, with the braids? The blood on her hands isn't all hers."

Time looked at it in confusion, only for it to disappear moments later. A slow, steady clapping sound came from behinds him and Time spun around only to come head-to-chest with the figure.

"**So, in your own terms, Time, what was your fear?" **The smile growing bigger on its face.

"I'm not… sure."

"**Want a hint, or should I let you figure it out on your own?"**

"…"

"**We're going to share the same fear, very soon."**

"And what would that be?"

The figure coughed again.

* * *

"Wind!" Mini shouted, trying to get the younger hero's attention. At the mention of his name, Wind's eyes popped open and he panicked. Wind lost concentration for a second and flipped over, struggling in the water.

"Hey, Wind! Are you okay down there?" Mini hollered, watching as Wind floundered around. For a few moments Wind looked like he was going to regain composure and roll back onto his back, but after a few moments he sunk like a rock.

"WIND!" Mini yelled as Wind didn't resurface. What the hell was going on? Couldn't Wind swim? Didn't he in fact,_ sail around on boats in a giant ocean_?

Mini disrupted his train of thought however by mindlessly jumping in. He shot down to the bottom of the surprisingly deep pool and caught sight of Wind, sinking slowly.


	8. Passed: Breakdown: Leaf

There was a number of bad things going on at the moment. For starters, Wind was apparently perfectly capable of swimming back up to the surface and using the walls for support. Another thing was that Mini, being overly impulsive, had jumped in to save Wind and was now floundering in the water. But the whole thing that topped it off was the fact that there was a third person.

Another Link, trapped under the surface of the water in a cage filled with air, stared back up quizzically at Mini.

A pair of blue eyes stood out from the rest of the water as Mini panicked, opening his mouth to scream and having it fill with water. Airless, upside-down and not quite sure when everything had gone wrong, Mini's first reaction was to start swimming towards air. Now, if he only knew which way was up.

* * *

"Is…is that Light? Is that Light down under the water?!" Time asked, looking out over the top of the pool.

"**Why yes, it appears so." **

"Why? Is there any air down there?"

"**Air is not the only thing down there."**

Time spun around, looking at the figure.

"What the hell does that mean?" Time snarled. "Are you low enough to endanger children?"

"**Light is 13. And he's not in any immediate danger for a few more seconds."**

"Are you saying that Light is going to drown?!"

"**If I were you, I would be less worried about Light and more worried about Sky."**

"But Light is the one about to drown!"

"**But Sky's the one about to crash into you."**

And with that comment, Time turned away from the figure to see Sky, flying at incredible speed, with no control. Time simply stood there as Sky rocketed into his chest, yelling and sending the two out above the pool. Sky seemed to attach himself to Time's chest as they fell into the water, dragging Wind down from the surface of the water into the depths with them.

Mini no longer needed to find up, as he was pushed down further by the impact of three bodies.

From above, the figure chuckled as it watched the four people clash in the water. Next to it was a Nighttime Remlit, hissing and cackling at the figure.

"**Oh , good, sweet childhood fears." **

The Remlit jumped at the figure, a mistake that ended it with a backhand hit and landing a good ten feet away.

"**Personally, I was looking forward to Ghirahim. Shame, I laugh every time I see him."**

* * *

Engie gave up. He had pushed every button, lever and flipped every switch with the exception of the horn . He had done an engine check, twice. He had checked the coal chambers, again twice. And now, the last thing to do was panic.

Panic on the speeding train, going faster than any train he had been on before, with no tracks to guide it. Engie thought of crying, screaming or just accepting it, or doing all three at once. He was doomed, and all he had to do was wait for the train to crash into a solid surface and crush him to death.

Right where the brake lever should be was a pair of hooked handles, attached to the metal fixture. Engie hadn't tried them before, as he thought they were simply the train horns. Engie decided that he would pull those levers until the train finally crashed and, standing up straight and tall, Engie lifted up his left hand towards his forehead and made a salute, readjusting his red hat.

Engie grabbed the separate brake handles, which he was not used to, and pulled them both. Nothing happened. The train didn't stop or even slow down and certainly didn't emit any high pitched sounds., it just continued to go forward at scary speeds.

"But…What? That should have made sound!" Engie cried, his voice drowned out by the sound of the train. Moving both of his hands to the left brake handle, he pulled backwards with all of his strength. The train made a sharp left turn, almost bordering on a U-turn.

"Ahahaha!" Engie yelled, joyfully happy that he was in slight control of the runaway train. But then it dawned on him that this didn't stop the train and, as far as he could tell, there was no way to stop it.

Engie then pulled on the right handle, making the train adjust slowly and then turning almost completely around. He needed to find something to crash into. Yes, he actually _needed_ to find something to crash into. If he angled the train correctly, he would be able to aim it at something that would stop it. At the same time , Engie could crawl out the window and onto the top of the train, run down the compartments to the caboose and crawl off by the time the train started slowing from crashing.

Now if he could only find something to crash into…

* * *

It was the pink bunny. A pink bunny had taken over the spot in the underwater cage that Light was stuck in moments ago.

"…What." Was all that any of the other four heroes floating around in the pool could say. The four of them had come to an arrangement, Time and Sky were drifting up-right in the water, Wind on Time's shoulders and Mini on Sky's. It seemed to work well, with the fact that Sky and Time could swim strongly and carry weight.

"Is that a bunny? Or did I eat spoiled pumpkin soup again?" Sky said, looking down at the pink bunny.

"I'm really hoping that we all just ate bad soup. Bad, rotten soup." Mini agreed, looking and shaking his head.

"You know, I could probably break that cage." Time mumbled, drifting over to the water above the cage. Wind struggled to look over Time's head downwards at his face as Sky and Mini stared.

"Are you telling me," Mini started, scowling." That you could've broken that cage by now?"

"Mini." Sky warned, shooting a look up at the boy resting on his shoulders.

"Well, I'm just saying, I could get down there and break the glass using my gauntlets. Unlike everything else, they seem to have stayed put. But that means I can only stay down there for a few seconds." Time explained.

"I might be able to do it." Sky said, swimming over to where Time was. Mini attached to Sky's neck and refused to let go. "If I just spin underwater, I could shatter the glass."

"Then do that! Do it now!" Mini cried, throwing his arms up in the air.

Once Mini said that, Sky lifted Mini off of his shoulders and above the water, holding Mini around the waist.

"Hey, Hey! What are you doing?! Put me down!"

"Okay!" Sky said all too joyfully, letting go of Mini. Mini fell and resurfaced after a few moments, spitting water all over Sky's face.

"I didn't say it like that you jerk!" Mini said, swimming over to Time and clutching Time's shoulder. Time just sank a littile lower into the water and kicked his legs faster.

"Mini, don't be mean. And Sky _did _put you down so… what did you expect?" Wind asked, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Gahhhh!" Mini cried, splashing water all over Wind and Time. Wind shook out his hair and wrung out Time's hat.

"Do that one more time, and I'll stick you in a bottle." Time threatened, narrowing his eyes. Mini scoffed as Sky rolled his eyes and dove under the water.

He avoided swimming into Time's kicking legs and kept going downwards. The glass cage was only about 10 feet below, but Sky started spinning anyways.

First spin, six feet away.

Second spin, two feet away.

He was only inches away now, just one more spin… And something hit him in the side like a torpedo.

The nighttime Remlit had jumped into the water after the heroes had stopped thrashing around and was now taking advantage of the vulnerable Sky. It bit Sky in the side and the two of them were pushed towards the glass cage. Sky got one good look inside and saw the pink bunny, breathing lightly and lying on it's side.

With the Remlit stuck with it's sharp little fangs in his side, Light-Bunny-thing barely breathing and Time struggling above him with Sky and Mini, Sky acted with impulse and ripped off the little Remlit. He wrestled around with the tiny creature in the water before trying to throw it upwards, failing. It simply drifted upwards before flipping back over to try and get Sky again, but had landed close enough to Sky's foot that when he kicked upwards, Sky managed to kick the little Remlit away.

Spinning back over, Sky looked down at the cage. He awkwardly breaststroked backwards and took one more chance at the spinning idea. It worked, with the glass cage imploding and air bubbles quickly floating.

The bunny started floating upwards, looking rather dead and scaring Sky. He grabbed the bunny by the ears and started kicking his legs to get back up to the surface, managing to kick the Remlit a few times as well.

"Come on bunny, breathe! Breathe!" Sky said after breaking the surface and holding the rabbit up in the air.

The bunny's eyes blinked open and quick, hurried breaths came out of its mouth.

"Oh, thank the goddesses." Sky said, clutching the bunny rabbit close. "Thought we had lost you there."

"Oh, well this is just great. How the hell are we supposed to get out of this water, huh? Any bright ideas Time?" Mini said, still clutching Time's shoulder for support.

"Hey Wind, can you float on your own for a few seconds?" Time asked, smiling evily. Wind shrugged and hopped off of Time's shoulders, landing close to Sky.

"Here's an idea, Mini," Time said, smirking and grabbing the young boy by his tunic back.

"Hey! Just what the hell do you think your doing?!" Mini protested trying to squirm out of Time's grip and attempting to kick him.

With one good arm swing, Time sent Mini flying through the air, up and over the rim of the pool and to the ground above. A large crashing sound, and suddenly Mini's head popped over the rim.

"YOU JERK! TIME I HATE YOU!" Mini yelled down.

"Oh no, what a shame." Time said sarcastically, ignoring Sky's and Wind's faces. "Alright Wind, you next."

"Well, I think there might be a better method Time, I mean, just chucking some one is kinda rude, don't you think?" Wind said nervously as Time picked him up.

"Seemed to work for Mini." Time said, and moments later, Wind had joined Mini up on the ledge.

That left just Time and Sky down there, floating around with no way out.

"Now what?" Sky said, still holding Light-bunny. Time just looked down at the broken cage, back at Sky and then up at Mini and Wind.

"I didn't really think this through, did I?" Time said, looking at Sky. Sky shook his head.

* * *

"**Are they still down there?"**

Mini and Wind flipped around to see the figure standing close to them. It was holding two blankets, one each for Mini and Wind.

"Hehe, it's funny." Mini said, pointing to the two stranded heroes as Wind took the blankets. Wrapping one around himself, Wind dropped the other one onto Mini's back.

"**Foolish Hylians." **The figure groaned. It turned away and started drifting, but snapped it's fingers before doing so.

The pool floor started rising rapidly, bringing Sky, Time, Light-bunny and the water with it.

"Well, that's just not fair." Mini said to himself, cozying up under his blanket.

* * *

Engie had found what he needed. In the distance was a big black dome, completely blocking out all light from the inside. Crashing headfirst into that would give him plenty of time to jump to his escape. Pulling hard on the left handle, the train turned suddenly to the left, aiming it's self perfectly with the dome.

"Alright, let's do this!" Engie cried, making the last small adjustments.

When he finished, Engie burst through the door leading to the guest compartment. He ran past chairs and tables, grabbing a red tablecloth as he ran by a table. A few more doors and he was at the exit of the caboose, taking his last few steps towards freedom. When he got through the door and saw the never-ending white space they were in, he bundled the ends of the table cloth in his hands. Making sure he had two corners in each hand, he leaned around the edge of the train to see how close they were.

And the train impacted as soon as he looked. Engie took the oppertuinity and jumped.

30 seconds before train impact

Brown was still crouching in the dark dome, head between his knees and rocking slowly back and forth.

"C'mon Brown, you can do it, just stand up and walk." Brown said to himself."Any second now, nice and slow."

Still keeping his eyes tightly shut, Brown lifted himself up slowly, spreading his arms to balance himself.

"Hey, hey! I-I did it!" Brown cheered for himself. "I can do this, I just needed to work at it!"

Gathering up the courage to open his eyes, Brown stumbled around in the darkness, before setting a straight path for himself. He shakily moved forward, completely blind and felt pretty proud of himself.

But at that exact moment, the largest sound Brown had ever heard in his entire life, the largest rumble ever, happened.

Engie's runaway train burst through the black dome the moment Brown moved away, running right over the spot where he had been sitting. Brown stood there, frozen in fear as the train passed by only feet behind him. It slowed and eventually came to a stop, with Brown standing no further than 5 feet away.

Slowly turning only his head to the left, Brown saw Engie in the distance, landing on the ground gracefully using a red cloth. Engie turned towards Brown's direction, trying to see his train-crashing work, only to see a shell-shocked Brown standing very close to the train.

"Brown?! Were you in that black dome?!" Engie yelled, completely oblivious to the fact that Brown was too afraid to move. Slowly turning his head to the right, Brown saw Mini, Wind, Time and Sky in the distance, all gaping at Brown and the train.

"**Congratulations!" **The figure boomed, slowly clapping. **"You've all passed your tests!" **

* * *

Once they had all re-grouped in one area, successfully got Brown to move again and separated him from Engie, the heroes focused their attention on the figure.

"So we've all passed?" Duo asked, scratching his cheek.

"**Yes, you have all passed your individual and group trials placed by the goddesses."**

"So, uh, just a small question, but when do you plan on turning Twilight and Light back?" Green asked, edging away from Twilight slowly.

"**Oh, that. Right then." **The figure said. It started coughing, like it had some disease, a painful hacking cough.

Light, through a relatively easy looking process, turned back into himself. Twilight, through a process that looked like the equivalent of having your skin ripped off, changed back into himself.

"Holy crap, my back hurts!" Twilight groaned, stretching. Perhaps he stretched too far, as a second later, his back popped loudly and it echoed around the empty area. Twilight just stood there, pained expression on his face and bending backwards while the others looked horrified.

"Never mind, it doesn't hurt anymore." Twilight said, bending back into a normal position. "I think."

Light however, was having a different reaction. He was sniffing his wrist and had an expression that showed extreme disgust.

"I smell like wet rabbit!" Light cried, fake sobbing and clinging to Duo and Brown. Duo and Brown both seemed to want none of it, and were trying to squirm away from Light.

"**Hmm? Oh, I see. You're back then." **The figure said to the room. Slowly, when the heroes turned around, they saw Leaf. She was standing behind the group, a small purple portal closing behind her.

But she was different. She was still barefoot, but this time her feet looked badly burned. Her hands were still bandaged and covered with the original blood stains, but there was more blood covering them and going up to her elbows. She had a deep gash above her right eye, blood dripping down the side of her face. She had a fat lip, many scratches on her upper arms and a tear in her green clothing on the right side. One of her braid ends was charred, the other one was half-way undone. She was shaking, rather badly too.

"**So, do you have my soul, brat? Or do I have to wait longer?" **

"Hey, can't you see she's hurt?!" Sky said, outraged that the figure had no sympathy for the girl.

"Are you okay?" Brown asked, walking out a few steps to the girl. She backed away from him, never looking up into any of their eyes. She was holding her right elbow with her left hand, a bottle in her right hand. It had something bright in it, drifting around slowly.

She walked straight past the Links, right in between them to get to the figure. She held out the bottle to it, nearly dropping it because she was shaking.

"**Is this honestly the best you could do?" **The figure said, sweeping a sleeve over the bottle and having it disappear. Leaf nodded. **"Oh. I'm disappointed. I expected better." **

"Hey! The kids hurt, leave her alone!" Twilight said, stepping forward. The figure's head turned slowly to look at him, and it hissed.

"**Fine then, if this is the best you could acquire, then it will have to do. Take them on their way now. Make sure to explain to them what they are doing before you open the portal." **The figure said, turning around when it was done. It walked away, disappearing as it went, until it was gone completely.

This left just Leaf standing there, looking down and still shaking.

"Can, uh, we help with something? Are you hurt?" Green asked Leaf.

"Of course she's hurt, you idiot! Look at her!" Mini yelled at Green. The two then proceeded to bicker at each other until Leaf said something.

"I'm sorry." Leaf muttered.

"About what? You haven't done anything!" Engie cried, his arms flailing in the air above him. "The blacked robe guy is just a big bully!"

"No, no I really messed something up." Leaf sighed and closed her eyes. "And now it's up to you all to fix it."

"What did you do that was so wrong?" Sky asked, getting down on his knees so he was at the same level as the girl. He looked her in the face, but she refused to look into his eyes.

"I…I was greedy and-and I unleashed a really, _really_ bad thing. I just- I didn't think-think that what I was doing was so…so bad." Leaf stammered.

"Sweetie, what did you do that unleashed such a bad thing?" Sky said, trying to get her to look at him.

"I was just-just so angry! I had…had lost my father…and no one would lis-listen to me because they all thought I was just a-a demon and- they, they all blamed me…I just couldn't take it."

"Your father died? What do you mean 'demon'? Why did they all blame you?" Sky asked, taking the young girl's hands.

"My dad- he was a hero…and I thought what I was doing was right…but I just messed everything up!" Leaf said, ripping her hands away from Sky's and digging them into her hair. "I pulled the master sword from the stone because I thought it would work!" She was now backing away from Sky, eyes closed shut. "It was supposed to bring a hero, but it only brought out horror! It killed me instantly and sent me here, to watch what I had done!"

"You asked for a hero…but we never showed up…" Sky said, turning to look at the others. His face looked heartbroken. "And the force of the master sword killed you once you touched it… because all it felt was the selfishness of needing your father back…"

"I just- I can't-…" Leaf said, collapsing to the ground and still gripping her hair. "Someone help." She whispered to her knees.

A bright green light came from behind Sky, coloring the whole area in various shades of green. When he turned around, Sky saw another figure, this time with a pale white face, dark green hair loosely knotted on the top of her head and dark green robes made of what looked like silk.

"Greetings, heroes. I am Farore."


End file.
